In his workshop at Humber School for Writers, Alistair MacLeod talked about the importance of place. Here are some of the points he made.
Literature takes place somewhere.
People write about what worries them – what they think about. In different regions, we worry about different things. In most places in Canada in November people are worried about the oncoming winter. Winter will kill you if you don’t prepare for it. But in Victoria in November, people have different worries. They’re not so worried about snow tires.
Let’s say you sit down to write a story about a missing son. It’s a universal worry, right? The son is 15 years old. What happened to him? The specific worry is regional. He might have cracked his snowmobile up or gone through the ice, but not in Victoria. In Victoria, it’s a different worry. No snowmobile. Maybe the boy was on the bus late at night and was stabbed. Maybe that’s what happened to him, but as a mother living in Victoria, you’re not going to worry about your son freezing to death.
Geography affects our ability to make a living.
On the West Coast and the East Coast, people worry about the DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans). What’s the DFO doing about low sockeye salmon stocks? What’s the DFO doing about the lobster catch? What’s the DFO doing to help those affected by the global recession? The DFO, the DFO, the DFO. In Manitoba, they don’t talk about the DFO; they talk about CWB (Canadian Wheat Board). They talk about the price of grain and the CWB, the CWB, the CWB.
If a writer does these specific worries well, people identify because we all have worries about feeding our families. We’re all dependent to some degree on resources and whether the steel mill or the saw mill is being shut down in our area.
Think in scenes that take place in a specific locale: in a kitchen, at a bus stop, in a graveyard. Don’t think in terms of events like WWII. Think in terms of the woman walking down the street with a parrot on her arm. What street? A street in New York City. Is that Woody Allen’s New York City? The place you choose will give you images to draw on. New York images, Saskatoon images, Vancouver images.
As a writer, it’s your job to bring the news. Bring the issues that affect us. Ground these issues in a specific locale.
Literature takes place somewhere.
People write about what worries them – what they think about. In different regions, we worry about different things. In most places in Canada in November people are worried about the oncoming winter. Winter will kill you if you don’t prepare for it. But in Victoria in November, people have different worries. They’re not so worried about snow tires.
Let’s say you sit down to write a story about a missing son. It’s a universal worry, right? The son is 15 years old. What happened to him? The specific worry is regional. He might have cracked his snowmobile up or gone through the ice, but not in Victoria. In Victoria, it’s a different worry. No snowmobile. Maybe the boy was on the bus late at night and was stabbed. Maybe that’s what happened to him, but as a mother living in Victoria, you’re not going to worry about your son freezing to death.
Geography affects our ability to make a living.
On the West Coast and the East Coast, people worry about the DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans). What’s the DFO doing about low sockeye salmon stocks? What’s the DFO doing about the lobster catch? What’s the DFO doing to help those affected by the global recession? The DFO, the DFO, the DFO. In Manitoba, they don’t talk about the DFO; they talk about CWB (Canadian Wheat Board). They talk about the price of grain and the CWB, the CWB, the CWB.
If a writer does these specific worries well, people identify because we all have worries about feeding our families. We’re all dependent to some degree on resources and whether the steel mill or the saw mill is being shut down in our area.
Think in scenes that take place in a specific locale: in a kitchen, at a bus stop, in a graveyard. Don’t think in terms of events like WWII. Think in terms of the woman walking down the street with a parrot on her arm. What street? A street in New York City. Is that Woody Allen’s New York City? The place you choose will give you images to draw on. New York images, Saskatoon images, Vancouver images.
As a writer, it’s your job to bring the news. Bring the issues that affect us. Ground these issues in a specific locale.
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